Tenham meteorites are the fragments of a larger
meteorite
A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...
that fell in 1879 in a remote area of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
near the Tenham station,
South Gregory, in western
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
. Although the fall was seen by a number of people, its exact date has not been established. Bright meteors were seen to be moving roughly from west to east. Stones were subsequently recovered from over a large area, about long by wide.
Because the Tenham meteorites were recovered quite soon after they fell, from a remote and dry region in which weathering and other alterations had not set in, they have been invaluable for scientific study of meteorites and their mineral contents. They are examples of
chondritic meteorites, containing a high level of organic compounds, and rich in silicates, oxides, and sulfides. Many scientific studies have explored the mineralogy of these meteorites and their non-terrestrial features.
Because the Tenham meteorites show evidence of high pressure deformations, they have been used to infer chemical and mineral changes that might occur within Earth's
mantle.
Ringwoodite
Ringwoodite is a high-pressure phase of Mg2SiO4 (magnesium silicate) formed at high temperatures and pressures of the Earth's mantle between depth. It may also contain iron and hydrogen. It is polymorphous with the olivine phase forsterite (a ...
, the high pressure
forsterite
Forsterite (Mg2SiO4; commonly abbreviated as Fo; also known as white olivine) is the magnesium-rich Endmember, end-member of the olivine solid solution series. It is Isomorphism (crystallography), isomorphous with the iron-rich end-member, fayalit ...
polymorph named after
Ted Ringwood
Alfred Edward "Ted" Ringwood FRS FAA (19 April 1930 – 12 November 1993) was an Australian experimental geophysicist and geochemist, and the 1988 recipient of the Wollaston Medal.
The mineral ringwoodite is named after him.
Early life and s ...
, was discovered in fragments of the Tenham meteorite.
In 2014, a team of scientists at Argonne National Laboratory studied a sample of bridgmanite, a
silicate perovskite
Silicate perovskite is either (the magnesium end-member is called bridgmanite) or (calcium silicate known as davemaoite) when arranged in a perovskite structure. Silicate perovskites are not stable at Earth's surface, and mainly exist in the l ...
(), taken from the Tenham meteorite. The team used micro-focused X-rays for diffraction analysis and fast-readout area-detector techniques to avoid damage to the sample. The study yielded results not seen when using synthetic samples, including a higher than expected presence of
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the peri ...
and
ferric
In chemistry, iron(III) or ''ferric'' refers to the chemical element, element iron in its +3 oxidation number, oxidation state. ''Ferric chloride'' is an alternative name for iron(III) chloride (). The adjective ''ferrous'' is used instead for i ...
iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
.
See also
*
Glossary of meteoritics
This is a glossary of terms used in meteoritics, the science of meteorites.
#
* 2 Pallas – an asteroid from the asteroid belt and one of the likely parent bodies of the CR meteorites.
* 4 Vesta – second-largest asteroid in the asteroid bel ...
References
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Chondrite meteorites
Geology of Queensland
Meteorites found in Australia
Geological type localities